What's Up? Docks--for spring bass fishing

View full sizeDocks are a good bassing target both during the pre- and post-spawn periods on many Alabama lakes.Frank Sargeant

When David Kilgore won the Bassmaster Southern Open at Lewis Smith Lake a few weeks back by casting to some of the clear lake's many boat docks, it was an affirmation of what a lot of North Alabama anglers already knew--docks hold fish pretty much year around.

Kilgore's win--an impressive 54-11 for three days on a lake known for producing stingy catches--was made mostly with a Strike King Umbrella Rig with KVD shad tails, but a lot of other lures also work around these structures, all of which are floaters at Smith due to the seasonal variation in water levels.

Though the lake water was cold when Kilgore won his event--in the upper 40's--he found fish on the shady side of the docks, mostly in the larger creeks where the fish were staging on their way to spawning areas in the back coves.

Particularly in a clear lake like Lewis Smith, bass tend to seek shade whenever the sun is shining--even if the water is chilly. Kilgore took advantage of his local knowledge (he's a Jasper native who grew up fishing the lake) to earn a big payday.

I used to live on Lewis Smith, and spent a good bit of time graphing the docks there. Most that had more than 10 feet of water under them had big wads of bait underneath almost year around, and there's no doubt that the combination of shade and cover with nearby chow makes the docks there a primary part of the cover.

Some anglers may also remember an FLW event won there a few years back by an angler who bellied down on the front deck and made bow-and-arrow casts under the docks with unweighted wacky worms on lightweight spinning gear--as the worms fluttered slowly toward bottom, the fish rose to meet them.

It's also possible on the deepest docks--some docks at Smith are suspended over more than 60 feet at their outer ends--to catch bass by vertical jigging with a Hopkins spoon or a Little George. The trick is to drop the lure through the cloud of bait and then stitch it up and down over the bass hanging below. The lighter the line, the better at Smith--6-pound fluoro is a good way to go for this tactic. (There's lots of submerged timber here, though, so throwing an A-Rig on anything less than 65-pound-test braid is likely to get expensive.)

Just about the only time the docks are not primary targets at Smith is during the spawn itself. Because the water under most docks is too deep for spawning, the fish temporarily abandon the cover during the nesting period, typically through most of April and into early May.

On lakes with docks set in shallower water, however, it's common for largemouths to spawn right against the pilings of a dock. On Guntersville, particularly those docks with lots of shell beds close by seem to attract the spawners, and it's possible to spend a full day on spawning fish and never cast to anything else but dock structures there.

The fish also hang around the outside of these docks where they meet the new-growth weedbeds in postspawn mode at Guntersville, making good targets for spinnerbaits, swimbaits and wobble jigs. And even in the heat of summer, the shade of docks set over deeper water can often hold lots of fish.